Cloud Making with Liz & Diana

A storm’s a brewing! July 26th and 27th at Patchwork Repair Hub, Slocan Hall

With weather and storm formation as a metaphor, we will be collectively creating upcycled art together, while we explore the question, “what is possible when community comes together and collective energy is built?”

At this paper mache and textiles workshop, we will be building the practical visual elements for The Cloud Parade! This performance will be part of the Vines Art Festival closing event on August 16, 2025. Paper mache clouds will float through the park, eventually gathering together into a puppeteered storm performance, with rain, thunder, and lightning bolts. These storm elements will feature text inspired by community visions for the possibilities within collective energy and connection. See https://www.vinesartsociety.com/ for timing and more info about the performance.

What to expect when attending the event:

No experience necessary! This will be a drop-in workshop where you will be able to choose what you'd like to work on, and can stay for as much or as little time as you like. There will be a variety of ways to participate, including sharing thoughts and words, cardboard cloud construction, paper mache, painting, and sewing together patchwork rain, lighting, and lighting bolt puppets! Everything made at this workshop will be featured in the Cloud Parade performance on August 16 at the Vines Art Festival. Some sewing / paper mache experience or creative writing / community building experience would be helpful but is not required - we will be providing advice and support throughout, and will match you to an activity that aligns with your interests and/or experience. All skill levels, creative curiosities, and ages welcome!

All materials will be provided but please feel free to bring anything you would like to contribute. For example: reclaimed textiles, newspaper or paper bags for paper mache, materials you would like to upcycle, patterns you would like to highlight, proverbs, sayings or phrases.

Artist Bios:

Liz Oakley is an interdisciplinary artist with a background as a puppeteer. Working within an expanded and queered definition of puppetry, their practice orbits around the animation of objects, materials, sites, and situations. They create performances, events, and installations that playfully engage not only visuality but also tactile and kinesthetic senses, offering open-ended propositions that challenge norms and inject the surreal into the mundane. Liz is also an arts educator and facilitates art-making workshops with a variety of ages and communities. Currently, they work with kids in Vancouver public schools through the AIRS program and with people of all ages at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Liz is a queer and nonbinary white settler from New York City/Lenapehoking.

Diana More is a Xicanx Xingonx and cultural activator, who’s creative journey began in the DIY punk scene with printmaking and photography as their main media. They also organised gigs, festivals, exhibitions, facilitating art-based workshops with race and gender equity as a constant underpinning theme, much of it focused on preventing gender-based violence and community building. They have an academic sociology background, which is balanced out with lived-experience and using a Zapatisa, decolonial, intersectional framework. They hope to carve out harm reduction spaces, “A World where many worlds fit:” and QTBIPoC joy.

Liz and Diana have collaborated on art-making workshops for menstrual equity and self-care. One of these workshops involved making giant paper-mache versions of menstrual products at the BC Menstrual Equity Symposium. Another involved making mixed media self-care pouches while discussing stigmas and messages around menstruation, as well as resources for self-care related to participants’ cycles. They both currently reside (aka trespass) in Vancouver on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

SLOCAN HALL ACCESSIBILITY INFO

We will be working out of the Slocan Hall, which is the room with the big windows.

There is a paved walkway in front of the door

Doorway is 31" wide, with no lip at the bottom

The room is big with smooth surface floors and lots of space to move around

There are no washrooms in the hall, but there is use of the public washrooms which are attached to the hall and are wheelchair accessible (they have an accessible stall)

Also check out other Arts events in Vancouver, Workshops in Vancouver, Festivals in Vancouver.